Christmas

I'm not sure what I was thinking sending all my Christmas pictures back with Ryan, but I'll post a few from my mom's camera. I will say (encouragement to those with twins younger than mine!) that this was the easiest time I have had with the twins yet! FINALLY! (Those people who said the first year was hard were totally full of it. Or else they had nannies.) I'm sure it's all the extra people around to help out with them, the constant entertainment of cousins, new toys and new places, and also just the fact that they're at the stage where they're slightly less hazardous and I finally don't have to watch them every single second that really made for a very enjoyable holiday. (Ok, until everyone got sick as we are currently.)


We got our white Christmas.
























Santa found us.







































Lots of new entertainment.

















(Like stairs.)















New faces.

















My kids actually got some attention.




















Ryan and I participated in the family talent show.
























And chubs found the chocolate cake.

















Doesn't get much better than that.

Oops

So guess what - apparently it's our anniversary today - or so Ryan informed me at 7pm tonight. Ha ha. Guess that means I didn't get you anything. :)

Bustling holiday season

Fun work Christmas party:

















Helped put together the ward Christmas party at church. Lots of work. Played "Sleigh Ride," didn't totally botch it (just a little), got Ryan to whinny like a horse and crack the whip. Claims it was his first and last time doing that.



Sang in church, made loads of funeral potatoes, made more food, did people's hair for the holidays, went to more parties, had friends over for a Christmas family home evening. Went to the beach to take some pictures for a friend. Saw this:





Why shouldn't you rollerblade in a thong?
(I tried to do you a favor and keep the picture small.)







Need to get ready for Utah on Friday! Need some sleep.

Busting out

I don't know why my life has been crazy and I hardly have time to blog anymore. Maybe it could be that we've been dealing with strange things like this weird virus/rash/whatever-the-heck-it-was that was all over poor Ashton. Or the fact that no one seems to be getting a full nights sleep around here anymore. I think within the space of a week, all three of my kids have had night terrors. And they sure aren't the lightest bundles to bounce around in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure the main cause is just the craziness of my children. They're fun and mischievous and infuriating and destructive and cute all rolled into one. Or two. I always feel bad when we're with friends - my naughty kids always seem to teach theirs new tricks like climbing on tables, playing in toilets, jumping off of things, etc. And they've beaten all the restraints we own - high chairs, cribs, pack 'n plays, and the front door lock. They've now figured out how to get out of all of those within the past few weeks. I laughed so hard a few weeks ago when a friend described how her little boy was so totally nonchalant about figuring out how to get out of the crib, just strolling out of the room and going about his business, too cool to even make eye contact. Like she was willing to bet he did a handstand off the crib on his way out and a tuck and roll when he landed. I laughed so hard ... until it was about a week after that that the exact same thing happened to me! I had to pick my jaw up off the floor and suck up the fact that now I'd totally been schooled! The first time Phoenix managed to get out of a pack 'n play - that is in our closet, the door of which is then wedged shut with a shoe (yeah, it sounds kind of cruel when I say it like that, huh?) but the shoe is so he doesn't play with opening and closing the door cause he thinks it's such a fun game he'll never go to sleep. So somehow I look up from my attempted nap and see an open closet door - not even just open, but totally busted out and off the track! I walk down the hall to find him in Cash's room just chillin', watching a movie! What?! The next morning I had taken Ashton out of the room to change his diaper (Phoenix was still in his crib) and was coming back in as Phoenix just brushes past me on his way out of the room. Totally cool about it, and same thing - no eye contact, just like, yo, what's up, I think I'll go check it out out here. Man. All modes of confinement - totally thwarted. No wonder I'm busy.


And alright - it must be time for a haircut because all day Ryan kept saying Phoenix looked like a hasidic Jew with those long ringlets on the sides of his head!



I really am just trying to grow a few long enough that I can cut off a whole luscious lock and save them! Guess it's probably about time. :)






I also love watching these two interact, although it usually means trouble - like we found the M&Ms! Or we pulled all the wipes out! Or we dismantled your cell phone!







































Probably most frequently their interaction is just fighting over things, but every so often they're also taking care of each other. Like if one is hurt the other tries to console him, or when one refuses to come with us, the other will go back to where the first is lying on the floor in refusal and he'll try to pull him up by the shirt or look at me and wait - like hey, we can't go without this one!

And times like that make me feel a little bad when we eat something like this for breakfast!















(Ok, it's so blurry - but my egg yolk was a twin this morning! Think of the happy life they could have had together!)

Feeling so domestic

I was so proud of my domesticity this Thanksgiving. I had some of the most successful pie crusts I've ever made! And I've had a good amount of flops - leading to store-bought crusts for the last few years, so I was feeling brave to try it again for an audience. I made Dutch apple and cranberry pear. And homemade rolls - another first. I like that I'm gradually getting into this Thanksgiving thing - last year I hosted and attempted my first turkey, this year it was pies and rolls. (And wow, it's much less stress not hosting!) Actually, I don't know what else there is interesting or challenging after turkey, rolls or pies - the other stuff is pretty mundane. I sort of like the creativity of pies. Do people make them the day before though? I didn't dare because it seemed they would get soggy, but it could sure take up your whole Thanksgiving if you were making anything else - anyone had any experience?

Then I made homemade French hot chocolate this weekend for putting up Christmas decorations and a sore throat. It wasn't quite as charming and homey as I thought since all Ryan did was complain about putting up Christmas and kept sneaking back to the computer to look for Black Friday internet deals, and the kids just cried from not being able to play with all the decorations. Maybe I'll crank up my Christmas tunes, make my hot chocolate and just send everyone away next year and do it by my merry little self. At least my bows made me happy. I probably went a little crazy on the bow-making, but figured it was probably one of the few things I could actually put up without the kids ruining.

Let's get it hoppin'...we're in Miami....

...For those of you who know the song - for those of you who don't, you're not missing anything. But this is a total party town, so while in Rome... we'll live it up for my birthday I guess. I don't usually drag out the celebration quite this much, but since my birthday is on a Sunday this year, we did a lot of our partying on the days leading up to my birthday. Friday night we went to this fun Greek restaurant in South Beach with insanely loud music where there are belly dancers and you dance on the tables and they throw napkins all over the place. Being as it was my birthday celebration, they kept making me get up on the table (more than anyone else in the whole restaurant, come on!) Luckily I was joined by good friends.










































What I like to call "bishops gone wild:" :)





















Um, and just to prove we weren't the only ones dancing on the tables, as I realize it looks from these pictures, here you can see it seems to be a real hit for girl's night out and bachelorette parties.





We didn't actually hear a word from our friends pretty much the whole time we were there because it was so loud, but we sang along to the music at each other, stood up and leaned over to yell in each others ears occasionally, and communicated in other ways I guess. Here's Rich with the crab that squirted about 6 feet and almost took Ryan's eye out. :)




















I guess I can definitely say it's the first time I've been sung to while standing on top of a table in restaurant full of people for my birthday.




















Then, lucky me, New Moon came out on my birthday weekend so Saturday night we got a bunch of girls to go out and see it. It's nice it coordinated with my birthday cause it makes me feel so loved that everyone wanted to come celebrate my birthday! (Or Jacob's six-pack. Whatever.) And we had no shame being a bunch of 20 and 30 year-old women being first in line at the theater.
















I was so happy this movie did not disappoint! So much better than the first one.




















Then we shopped around Lincoln Road and went out to eat. One of our friends knew the manager where we went and he was so sweet to bring out a whole tray full of shots for all of us - and even a non-alcoholic "mommy shot" for our pregnant friend. I felt bad explaining that we actually didn't drink and so the sweet guy brought out a whole round of "mommy shots" for all of us! Here's to our first shots!




















Then Sunday was finally my real birthday (told you I really dragged this out this year). My talented cake decorating friend made me a cake after an actual piece of artwork! Romero Britto is this famous Miami artist who has sculptures and art all over the place that are really cool, check it out:

And my cake:


How awesome is that?! (It did start out up on it's side, but poor Megan said it was a bit of a disaster!) I feel so cool to have such a unique cake!
































Seriously, I hope you all have as much fun on your birthdays as I did on mine! It was definitely a memorable one. Which is nice because let's be honest, there's not much cool about thirty-one. Thirty was ok cause it's like - oh, you were just barely in your twenties. But thirty-one, you are just definitely in your thirties.

I'm Yours

This is Cash's favorite song. He plays it over and over again. (You can hear him as soon as it's over saying, "Let's sing I'm Yours again.") I love watching his cute little body try to figure out how to groove!!




And it just melts my heart when he points at me!

This motherhood business is really wearing on me.

I'm not sure what to think about this past week. From the twins toilet papering the house, to attempted potty training, to giving up said potty training, to spending hours on the computer trying to figure out how to get home for Christmas, to utter meltdowns and naughty children, to feeling like my husband and I are just two people who pass each other as one comes in the house and the other leaves....it's been a little exhausting. (It crossed my mind to say that my husband and I are just two people who sleep next to each other for the few hours that our unconscious time overlaps, but then realized that Ryan's even been getting the boot from the bed for all his tossing and turning this week. Hmm.)



Here's our potty party for the drink and pee doll when he was successfully potty trained. Yeah, too bad we didn't make it that far for Cash. He peed in the toilet twice over the space of a few days and otherwise just held it all day until we put a diaper on him at night. We happened to visit the pediatrician this week and she said to go cold turkey and just do the underwear. We tried that, and it ensued in a whole day of sobbing to just wear a diaper. Then we went with her other piece of advice which was if he's holding it until he has a diaper on, he may just not be emotionally ready. And we went back to diapers. I didn't want to traumatize the kid, and I was thinking he may be embarrassed from the few accidents he had and I guess we'll just re-visit this later. I was a little surprised when she said he may not be ready, since he's almost 3 1/2 and is pretty much the last kid his age I know in diapers, but whatever. It doesn't bother me to have him in diapers. Then I can change him at my convenience, not his. :) And it's not like it gets me out of the diaper stage anyway.

The twins are naughty as usual, bucking around and screaming so I can't get them strapped in their car seats, going limp when I try to pick them up when they're refusing to come in the house and would rather stay out in the parking lot or in the hallway, refusing to hold my hand, running off when we're out, climbing up on everything, and little daredevil Phoenix attempting all the stuff that's meant for like 8 year olds on the playground. And still being cute when they're not naughty. Good thing.

And then this morning Cash had a total and complete meltdown when I cut his hair. Ridiculous. He asked for me to cut his hair when he saw me cutting the twins, so I thought great, he really needs a haircut. Then when he saw his hair going in the garbage, he went totally ballistic screaming at me to put it back on. I tried reminding him how we just talked in family home evening about how our bodies grow and we have to cut things like our fingernails and hair because they get too long and then they grow again. Trying to be reasonable was totally not working, so finally I thought maybe I should just humor him and pretend to put his hair back on. Nothing else was abating him, so I tried it. It didn't work. He laid down on the floor kicking and screaming, totally freaking out. He kept yelling about the hair in the garbage, which I had actually buried under everything in there, so I went and showed it to him - that there was no hair in there and then the tantrum turned to freaking out for the next 30 minutes about the "missing hair ... wahhhhhh ..... waaaaaahhhh .... sob ... sob ... sob ... scream!!!!" Oh my goodness. Did I know motherhood was going to involve such bizarre episodes?

To end on a positive note, I finally got us tickets home for Christmas! I was soooo sad thinking we wouldn't be able to go this last year - last because after this we'll have to buy 5 tickets instead of just 3 with two lap-riders so we probably won't go. But I've looked every day since June and tickets have been $600+ each. But thanks to talking our manny (just kidding, the friend of mine that babysat our kids) into taking a lap-rider on his way back from Utah (he's going home for the holidays too and his dates were much less expensive than when Ryan has to come home) and using two different sets of miles - I made it work!!! (And I made sure he knew it would be the worst flight of his life.) So since I'm feeling rather festive now, here's the past week's fashion show to ring in the season:


























Who would have thought last season when I bought size three jammies that the twins would be wearing them this year!?
























And wow, check out the snug-ness of these size 2T's! That's some serious chub-cling!
























And now I will go attend to the three children that have been shrieking at my feet for 15 minutes while I tried to do just one little post at what I thought was the end of their naptime. And I will try not to think about the fact that Ryan is working late tonight and so I will have to deal with these bundles of joy all by myself all day today. And the M&Ms are gone. And I'm still in my pajamas.

The end.

Oh, Cash.

We have Cash in this little exercise class with a friend of his. Each week they learn a few basics of a different sport or skill like jump-roping, tennis and even lacrosse (with tiny little lacrosse sticks). Here's a little gem I happened to catch during the volleyball week. Perhaps it will be a little self-explanatory as to why we have him in a class like this.




(Sorry, any poor footage was from me laughing so hard. In case you can't tell from the video - he closes his eyes and flinches every time the ball comes near him!) I know, maybe people will say not every kid is into sports, but well, as Ryan put it when he first saw the video, "Yeah, that's the kind of kid that gets nailed in dodge ball."

Cherubs

Well, where else can your kids run around as half-naked little cherubs on Halloween but Miami? They have the perfect curls, the perfect chub, (they didn't act like the perfect angels, but whatever), 90 degrees, and there you have it. (And I sort of learned my lesson after everyone was sweating to death last year in their costumes.)

And of course our little cowboy.

























Here with his preschool teacher.





















Even though he chose his own costume, he is, as ever, a most unwilling subject as you can see and spent most of the day riding around like this in revolt.






















Luckily he cheered up a bit Halloween night.

Checking out their costumes.


We went to the ward trunk or treat party where the twins were screaming rotten for the first hour.


They perked up a bit when we went outside to trick-or-treat, but were pretty skeptical of the whole candy business. They only lasted a couple of cars on that,





















































until they found the car with the glowing pumpkins and then stayed there the rest of the night.

Not a great video but I had a hard time getting a good still shot, and those glowing pumpkins saved Halloween from being an utter screaming and miserable mess.










Keeping their angelic chub up with a mouth full of candy.

























I'll be honest, Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I find it stressful and seem to notice a pattern emerging from this of stress-induced marital arguments trying to get everyone ready and out the door and remembering all our stuff resulting us being being in a bad mood most of the evening. I'm just glad it's over and now we can get on with the real holidays. Like my birthday. :) Oh yeah, and Thanksgiving and Christmas too.



Thankfully at least the pictures will make my memories brighter, huh?